Krulwich Wonders...

9:40 am

Thu August 7, 2014

What A Balloon Shouldn't Do, But For Some Reason Does

Great teaching — just plain old knock 'em dead, get it right, make 'em laugh, make 'em wonder instruction — is always going to be rare. Good teachers abound. Great ones are special. And "Destin," who goes by one name and has his own little physics channel on YouTube called Smarter Every Day, is, for my taste, among the very best. He's a rocket scientist in Alabama, who knows ballistics, ordnance, guns. But he also knows all kinds of secrets hiding in plain view all around us. The laws of physics are his text. And when he shows you something, you remember it because he makes his lessons so wonderfully, crazily clear. Four million people have clicked on this experiment he does with a pendulum, a balloon, his kids — all in his car. If you haven't seen this yet, it's time. This takes only 3 minutes, and the ad at the end? Even that is kind of joyous.